Epigenomics AG and The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute announced today an agreement to fund and carry out the first
phase of the Human Epigenome Project (HEP). The HEP will identify and describe sites in the human genome at which
cytosine bases are modified by DNA methylation (see Notes). This announcement follows the successful completion of the
HEP pilot study funded by the European Union (FP5): the data from the pilot study are released today on the HEP's
website.

Changes to DNA sequence - the order of A, T, G and C in our genetic code - and their role in health and disease are
increasingly well understood with the completion of the human genome sequence. But our cells use additional layers of
gene control and DNA methylation is one of the most important regulators of gene activity. As well as being important
for normal development, methylation changes are detected in many cancers and some developmental disorders such as
Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome.

Because DNA methylation is altered in many diseases and is associated with our response to medicines and other factors
like aging, the HEP will provide a crucial link between genetics, the environment and health. Integration of genetic
and epigenetic information will help us to understand how and when our genes are switched on or off and it will
increase our ability to fight common and complex disease.

"The mapping of all DNA methylation sites promises a better understanding of the biological basis
of disease and may allow diagnosis at a much earlier stage," commented Dr Kurt Berlin, Chief Scientific Officer
at Epigenomics.

Epigenomics will utilise its expertise in high-throughput methylation analysis, while The Wellcome Trust Sanger
Institute will contribute high-throughput sequencing technology to the collaboration. Tissue samples will be supplied
from commercial sources as well as academic partners. After methylation-specific preparation by Epigenomics, the
samples will undergo sequencing by The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

Both Epigenomics and The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute are part of the Human Epigenome Consortium (HEC), founded in
1999, which also includes the Centre National de Génotypage (Paris, France). The HEC is a public/private
collaboration that aims to identify and catalogue Methylation Variable Positions (MVPs) in the human genome.

Notes to Editors

DNA Methylation

Methylation is a natural process that occurs mostly on one of DNA's four base pairs, cytosine. The presence of
methylation can modify the activity of genes. Differences in the pattern of methylation between healthy and disease
tissue can be detected and may indicate a change in gene activity that triggers diseases such as cancer. However, our
knowledge of the changes caused by methylation is limited; the HEP will provide a map of such methylation sites thereby
linking gene sequence to regulation.

DNA Methylation and disease

Methylation changes are detected in cancer and are also involved in several developmental diseases such as
Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome (BWS), Prader-Willi syndrome and Angelman syndrome. In BWS, aberrant methylation of genes
H19 and LIT1 is associated with more extreme effects and predisposition to cancer.

Pilot Project

The Consortium recently completed an EU-funded pilot study of the methylation patterns within the Major
Histocompatibility Complex (MHC), a region on chromosome 6 that is associated with more diseases than any other region
in the human genome. In total, the methylation status of well over 100,000 sites has been determined, revealing major
differences in the methylation pattern between tissues. In order to integrate the methylation data with existing genome
annotation and make them publicly available, a new methylation viewer has been developed using the popular Ensembl interface (http://www.epigenome.org/ and
http://www.sanger.ac.uk/epigenome/).

MVPs will be generated in batches. After 120 days the data from each completed batch will be released at http://www.epigenome.org/. No license expressed or implied is granted for commercial
use of the released data. Non-commercial entities may use the data solely for non-Commercial research purposes. For the
avoidance of doubt, the data is subject to the Wellcome Trust Intellectual Property Policy and patent applications
might have been filed.

About Epigenomics

Epigenomics is committed to personalizing medicine in cancer and other complex diseases by developing novel diagnostic,
pharmacodiagnostic, and research products. By detecting and interpreting digitized DNA methylation patterns, the "on"
and "off" signs for genes, Epigenomics enables an exact diagnosis of disease at very early stages and helps select an
appropriate therapy.

The company has its headquarters in Berlin, Germany, and a wholly owned subsidiary in Seattle, USA. For more
information, please visit our website at http://www.epigenomics.com/.

About the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

The Sanger Institute is a genome research institute primarily funded by the Wellcome Trust. Our purpose is to further
the knowledge of genomes particularly through large-scale sequencing and analysis. The Wellcome Trust is an independent
research-funding charity, established under the will of Sir Henry Wellcome in 1936. It is funded from a private
endowment which is managed with long-term stability and growth in mind. The Trust's mission is to foster and promote
research with the aim of improving human and animal health.